Corals gone AWOL on me !

thecloser

Posted 10 March 2012 - 05:31 PM

thecloser

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Out of no where my zoas have stopped opening up for about 2 weeks now. My Sunny D's open enough to get SOME light but thats not saying much and I have had a random brown/gold diatom bloom or something like that all over my sand bed for about 3 weeks now.

Not sure what is happening out of no where.

This tank is about 8 months old with probably 25lbs LR and 30 lbs LS in a 20Gal Long

Builder Anthony

Posted 10 March 2012 - 07:05 PM

Builder Anthony

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i just moved a plug of sunny ds from a med flow high light to a low flow low light but they seem to like high flow high light.now this may be because i run a long photo period and algae tends to build up on them,then they close.

Veng

Posted 12 March 2012 - 04:21 PM

Nirtrte - 0Nitrite - 0Ammonia - 0pH looks to be at 8.0Calcium is around 400-420phosphate looks to be at 0.25and kH i believe was at 161.1 but could have been 143 maybe

143 kH... that would be impressive.

The Phosphate is high, everything else is fairly low, but that oculd be the diatom's eating it all. I would expect some NitrAtes though.. Did you change your water source, lighting scheduel, or feeding recently?

wenhamjj

Posted 12 March 2012 - 04:31 PM

wenhamjj

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I had this happen to me once where all my zoas would not open. What fixed it for me was a good FW dip and then I blasted the crap out of them with a turkey baster daily for a couple of days. After doing this they all started to open and within a week they were opening fully. I would at least give them a good blast cleaning with the turkey baster. Just my 2 cents worth.

thecloser

Posted 13 March 2012 - 12:35 PM

KoolFish

Posted 13 March 2012 - 12:55 PM

KoolFish

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so what are peoples thoughts on this?

Your test results look fine other than the phosphate. Did you add anything new in the last few weeks? Corals, etc... for example, I had problems with frag plugs not being cured properly and caused an algae bloom and all the corals to look unwell. Look over the last few weeks and see what you may have done differently and added.

JamesHL88

Posted 13 March 2012 - 01:13 PM

This happened to my green stars until i found a nudibranch under their rock and plucked them out i think this is the case and the diatoms are an unrelated issue.

This happened to my green stars until i found a nudibranch under their rock and plucked them out i think this is the case and the diatoms are an unrelated issue.

Or you could be giving them too much light. This could cause the polyp retraction and the diatoms but im still leanin towards a nudi being the culprit. Some of those basterds blend in so good they are hard to find unless you catch them in the act munching on corals.

Builder Anthony

Posted 13 March 2012 - 01:19 PM

Builder Anthony

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actualy ill take back my first comment ......i had my first signs of melting.i think it was caused by high salt 28.lowered it w waterchange and sunnys r opening .....mini aussies were starting 2 melt........run high salt?